Two hours after calling Davo a "pedophile" Coleman, who had "swiftly punched Davidson to the jaw with his right fist", killing him, was in police custody.
Real hard to believe it’s been a year since Chris Davidson, the wildly talented Narrabeen surfer who beat Kelly Slater twice in a row at Bells in 1996, was killed in a “one-punch assault” outside the grandly named South West Rocks Country Club, five or so hours north of Sydney.
Davidson, who was forty-five, was knocked unconscious, treated at the scene by the ambos and taken to Kempsey Hospital but pronounced dead a short time later.
Grant Coleman, brother of the noted rugby union coach Darren Coleman, was arrested an hour after the attack and charged with Davidson’s death.
Earlier today, Coleman, who is forty-three, appeared in Kempsey Local Court via an AV link from jail where he pleaded guilty to “assault causing death.”
Court docs reveal Davidson and Coleman were both at the South West Rocks Country Club on the arvo of September 24, 2022. Later that night, at 10:22 pm, Coleman saw Davidson with a nineteen-year-old girl and called him a “pedophile.”
Two hours later, Davo was dead and Coleman, who had “swiftly punched Davidson to the jaw with his right fist” outside the club, was in police custody and charged with assault causing death.
The charge of “assault causing death” is one of those rare offences where minimum sentences apply, the law coming into play after a series of highly publicised attacks where men were killed after being belted, all late at night, all alcohol fuelled.
Coleman faces a max of twenty years in prison, twenty-five if he was intoxicated, with a minimum sixteen year total sentence, eight of ‘em in full-time custody.
Davo was anointed as a surf star in his early teens, the raw foil to Tom Curren in Rip Curl’s then cutting-edge Search advertising campaign, which was created by the writer Derek Hynd.
In 1996, aged nineteen, Davo was gifted a wildcard into the Rip Curl Bells event, then one of the most prestigious contests in surfing.
Now, you gotta remember, in 1996, Kelly was at his peak, twenty-four, unstoppable.
Dave, loose as anything, more rockstar than Hoy and co, rolled up to his round one heat with a borrowed board and no leash.
And…smoked…Kelly.
Davo, lowest seed, got Kelly, highest, in round three and did it again, Kelly so sad he gave the finger to the judges.
Recent years weren’t so kind to Davo, although let’s be frank, he did burn the candle at both ends, as well as the sides and through the guts.
In 2006, he copped a ten-year driving ban and ten years later, officially back behind the wheel, he crashed his mum’s car into a tree while pissed, cops charging Davo with high-end drink-driving.
A resident who heard the terrific noise, went outside and found Davo slumped in his seat, unmoving. Apart from internal injuries, he suffered severe damage to the ligaments in his neck and would later undergo surgery to his right arm.
If you want to see surfing Davo at his best, watch any of Sonny Miller’s films for Rip Curl or if you want a taste of the man in all his raw glory, watch this.
“Now that you’re normal let me ask you one question,” says interviewer GT.
“I’m never normal,” growls Davo.
Interviewer GT asks, “If someone wrote a book about you what would it be called?”
Without hesitation, Davo replies “Doctor Damage and his Tiger Blood!”
One of a kind.
